Strathmore University students and Valuraha founders Betty Mutimba, Kinyanjui Njoroge and Wangechi Mwangi. Courtesy photo
By Sandra Chao
IN SUMMARY
Strathmore University students are the brains behind the Valuraha site.
You can be excused for thinking that Valuraha is a tweaked version of the words Value and Raha — which means happiness in Kiswahili — and that the three youths behind the web-based platform coined the phrase to reach out to their peers.
Valuraha, however, has its origins in northern Europe; it is Estonian to be exact and means smart money.
The entrepreneurial trio; Wangechi Mwangi, Betty Mutimba and Kinyanjui Njoroge — apart from being students at Strathmore University — share a passion for finance which was among the reasons they sought to create financial literacy through the platform last May.
“I have always dreamt of starting my own business empire centred on intelligent systems ever since I was in high school. I called it smart money so I played around with Google translate to make it sound cool. When we began this venture Wangechi and Kinyanjui loved it and that’s how the name stuck,” said Ms Mutimba.
The fact that Mutimba and Kinyanjui are fourth year students while Wangechi is in second year has not stopped them from building on their venture which is housed at the IbizAfrica Africa incubator.
The students are pursuing undergraduate degrees in Business Information Technology while Kinyanjui is majoring in Informatics.
Different fields
“If all of us weren’t in technology we would be in finance, we chose technology because it is not really a stand-alone — it blends into many different fields. For us the field we chose to accelerate is finance because it is our common interest,” said Ms Mwangi.
The vision of Valuraha is to open up finance to people who do not know much about the sector, targeting them with the right knowledge and practical skills in order to help them become wealth creators.
“Many people believe that the sector is a club for the elite because of the wrong perception that the entry barrier is beyond them. Yet one could easily pool resources with fellow peers and plough it in the securities market or fixed income market. They fail to realise that they have a network which when combined can make things happen,” Ms Kinyanjui explained.
In line with this vision, the web-based platform has created a replica of financial markets; complete with a live feed from the Nairobi Securities Exchange that enables one to trade with virtual money while interacting with live market data.
“Some of the students studying actuarial science and finance can be able to grow portfolios on paper theoretically, but if you give them the money and ask them to help you buy shares and make money for you practically they would not know where to start,” said Ms Mwangi.
In order to participate in the education platform, one has to register at a fee, which enables them to join a public or closed league where they can compete with their peers to see how one can grow a big portfolio and make the most profit in a limited period of either a month, three months or half a year.
The registration fee is set at Sh1,000 for the public, membership is renewed annually at a similar amount.
“We mimic the real world scenario and give it to you to enable you to understand it.
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